What distinguishes this piece is that seemingly from its great age and its having been made in England, it has preserved in the outer or lower lines several of the olden Runes. These are the "Notae Distortae" spoken of by Worm. Some of these as we can plainly see are provincial English varieties of the old northern Runes.
The Calendar before us is of bone, made from the jaw-bone of the porpoise. We know nothing of its history. Worm says, "Probably to this class must be assigned the peculiar Calendar carved on a concave bone, part of the jaw-bone of some large fish." Although it shows three rows of marks the signs of Festivals, the Solar Cycle and the Lunar Cycle, this last is here very imperfect and has even some distorted marks as we see in the engraving.
Each side, the concave as well as the convex, bears near the edge its girdling three rows of marks, so that every series comprehends a quarter of a year, beginning with the day of Saint Calixtus. As Worm has only given one side of this curious Rune-blade, we cannot know the peculiarities of the other half, which contained the Solar Cycle, and the three sign lines for two quarters.
On the side given, the Runes on the right hand are reversed and read from top to bottom; those on the left hand are not retrograde. It may often have been carried on the person, being only 18 inches long. The clog calendars range in length from 3 to 4 feet, to as many inches.
Whenever we light upon any kind of Runic pieces, we are at once confined to the north, Scandinavia and England. Though so numerous in the Northern lands, no Runic Calendar has ever yet been found in any Saxon or German province, except a couple bought or brought by modern travellers, as curiosities from Scandinavia.
Stephens says this whole class of Antiquities has never yet been properly treated. It offers work for one man's labours during a long time and many journeys. It would produce a rich harvest as to the signs and symbols, and Runes as modified by local use and clannish custom. All the symbol marks should be treated in parallel groups. The various and often peculiar Runes should be carefully collected and elucidated. All this is well worthy of a competent Rune-Smith, Computist, and Ecclesiologist. On many of the old Runic Calendars, especially in Sweden, we find a "lake" or game long famous all over Europe, but now mostly known to children, called "the Lake" or game of Saint Peter. This is an ingenious way of so placing 30 persons, that we may save one half from death or imprisonment, by taking out each ninth man as a victim, till only one half the original number is left. These 15 are thus all rescued. Of course the man thus taken must not be counted a second time.
Formerly the favoured 15 were called Christians and the other Jews. Carving this in one line, we get the marks so often found on Rune-clogs:
xxxx|||||xx|xxx|x||xx|||x||xx|
The story about it is this: Saint Peter is said to have been at sea in a ship in which were 30 persons, the one half Christians and the other half Jews. But a storm arose so furious that the vessel had to be lightened, and it was resolved to throw overboard half the crew. Saint Peter then ranged them in the order we see, every ninth man was taken out. The crosses betoken the Christians and the strokes the Jews. In this way all the Jews were cast into the deep while all the Christians remained. Herewith the old were wont to amuse themselves.
Folk-lore of children in rhyme and ritual. The child is surrounded by an ancient circle of ritualism and custom. Visitors to see the infant must take it a threefold gift. In some districts in Yorkshire the conditions are a little tea, sugar, and oven-cake. Another Yorkshire practice is to take an egg, some salt, and a piece of silver. The child must not be brought downstairs to see the visitor, for to bring it downstairs would be to give it a start in life in the wrong direction. The form of this idea is to be found in certain (Japanese) customs. The child's finger-nails must not be cut with scissors, for iron had such close association with witchcraft. The nails must be bitten off with the teeth. This practice survives in some adults, much to the disgust of their friends.
Of children's games, that known as "Hopscotch" was originally a religious rite practised at funerals. It was symbolical of the passage of the soul from the body to heaven or the other place to which the ancients gave various names. The pattern which is drawn for the purpose of this game has been found on the floor of the Roman Forum.
Another game called "Cat's Cradle" was played by the North American Indians, and has recently found on an island north of Australia. When children could not play on account of the rain they recited a little rhyme which is still known to-day by the people of Austria and in the wilds of Asia. The game of "Ring o' Roses" is the survival of an old incantation addressed to the Corn Spirit. When the wind rippled across the cornfield the ancient harvesters thought the corn god was passing by, and would recite the old rhyme, closing with the words, "Hark the cry! hark the cry! all fall down!" Sometimes the corn spirit was supposed to become incarnated in the form of a cow, hence the line in the nursery jingle, "Boy Blue! the cow's in the corn." When the boy donned his first pair of breeches he must pass through a ritual. He must be nipped. The significance of the nip was a test to see whether the boy in the new breeches was the same boy, or whether he had been changed by the fairies or evil spirits. This idea of a change by evil spirits might seem far-fetched, but so recently as 1898, in the records of the Irish courts there was a case in which an Irishman was tried for accusing his wife of not being the same person as when he married her, and of the woman being branded in consequence. Superstitions as to the cure of certain childish complaints survive in the cure for whooping cough, to take the sufferer "over t' watter." That is the only medicinal use of the river Aire, near Leeds.
At the time of the Conquest the population in some of the largest and most important cities is said to have been almost exclusively of Scandinavian extraction.
In the north the Norwegian saint, "St. Olave," has been zealously commemorated in both towns and country. This proves that churches were built and Christian worship performed during the Danish dominion, and that these Northmen continued to reside here in great numbers after the Danish ascendancy ended.
In the city of Chester there is a church and parish which still bears the name of St. Olave, and by the church runs a street called St. Olave's Lane. This is opposite the old castle and close to the river Dee. In the north-west part of York there is a St. Olave's Church, said to be the remains of a monastery founded by the powerful Danish Earl Sieward, who was himself buried there in the year 1058. Long before the Norman Conquest, the Danes and Northmen preponderated in many of the towns of the North of England, which they fortified, and there erected churches dedicated to their own sainted kings and warriors. Olave is derived from "Olaf the White," who was a famous Norse Viking. He subdued Dublin about the middle of the ninth century, and made himself king of the city and district. From this time Ireland and the Isle of Man were ruled by Norwegian kings for over three centuries.
It may therefore be inferred, by a natural process of deductive reasoning, that during this period the Danes were founding their settlements in Lancashire. Although we have no distinct traces of buildings erected by them, the names given by them to many places still survive. In these compound names the word "kirk" is often met with. This must establish the fact that the Danes erected many other churches besides St. Olave's at Chester and York. From Chester and West Kirby, in the Wirral district, to Furness, in the North, we have abundant evidence in the name of Kirk, and its compound forms, that many Christian churches were erected. At Kirkdale, Ormskirk, Kirkham, Kirkby Lonsdale, Kirby Moorside, and Kirkby Stephen Norman churches have superseded Danish buildings. Kendal was known formerly as Kirkby-in-Kendal, or the "Church-town in the valley of Kent." And further memorials here survive in the names of streets, such as Stramongate, Gillingate, Highgate, and Strickland-gate.
The name Furness is distinctly Scandinavian, from "Fur" and "Ness," or Far promontory. The abbot of Furness was intimate with the Danish rulers of Manxland, for he got a portion of land there in 1134 to build himself a palace. He was followed by the Prior of Whithorn and St. Bede. In 1246 the monks of Furness obtained all kinds of mines in Man, and some land near St. Trinian's. By the industry and ability of these monks Furness became one of the wealthiest abbeys in England, and thus were laid the foundations of one of the greatest industries in Lancashire, viz., the smelting of iron ore.
During that period when the Danes were making their conquests and settlements in the North of England, art and literature did not hold any high position in Europe. The fall of the Roman Empire gave a shock to the pursuits of learning which had not recovered when Christian art was in its infancy. The Northmen early distinguished themselves in the art of shipbuilding, and also in the manufacture of ornaments, domestic utensils, and weapons. This taste had arisen from the imitation of the Roman and Arabesque articles of commerce which they brought up into the North. Some Scandinavian antiquities have been discovered belonging to the period called "the age of bronze," and also the later heathen times, known as "the iron age." The Sagas record that the carving of images was skilfully practised in the north, and the English Chronicles provide records of richly carved figures on the bows of Danish and Norse vessels. The Normans from Denmark who settled in Normandy were first converted to Christianity, and early displayed the desire to erect splendid buildings, especially churches and monasteries.
Long before the Norman Conquest, the Danes devoted themselves to peaceful occupations. Several of the many churches and convents were erected by Danish princes and chiefs, in the northern parts of England, which have now been re-built, or disappeared; but their names survive to distinguish their origin. It has been said that these early buildings were composed of wood. This is proved from the work recently issued by Mr. J. Francis Bumpus, in his "Cathedrals of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark." The touching life story of the martyred Saint Olaf is there told. A wooden chapel was built over his grave about the year 1047. This became the centre of the national religion, and the sanctuary of the national freedom and independence. Trondhjem, says Mr. Bumpus, is the eloquent expression in stone of Norway's devotion to the beloved St. Olaf. Despoiled of much of its ornamentation by Protestant zeal, it retains in the octagon of its noble choir a true architectural gem, equal in delicate beauty to the Angel Choir of Lincoln.
The phrase "skryke of day" is common to South Lancashire, and is the same as the old English "at day pype," or "peep of day." "There is a great intimacy," says Dr. Grimm, "between our ideas of light and sound, of colour and music, and hence we are able to comprehend that rustling, and that noise, which is ascribed to the rising and setting Sun." Thomas Kingo, a Danish poet of the seventeenth century, and probably others of his countrymen, make the rising of the Sun to pipe (pfeifen), that is to utter a piercing sound.
Tacitus had long before recorded the Swedish superstition, that the rising Sun made a noise. The form in which our skryke of day has come down to us is Scandinavian. Grimm says, "Still more express are the passages which connect the break of day, and blush of the morning, with ideas of commotion and rustling." Goethe has in "Faust" borrowed from the Pythagorean and Platonic doctrine of the harmony of the spheres, and illustrated Grimm's proposition of the union of our ideas of light and sound by describing the course of the Sun in its effulgence as a march of thunder. Jonson regarded noise as an essential quality of the heavenly bodies—
The noise of daybreak may be gathered from the fracture of metal, and applied to the severance of darkness and light, may well have sound attributed to it. The old meaning of "peep (or pype) of day" was the joyful cry which accompanied the birth of light. "Peep," as sound is most ancient, and a "nest of peepers," that is, of young birds, is now almost obsolete English. Milton, in "Paradise Lost," shows the setting Sun to make a noise from its heated chariot axles being quenched in the Atlantic. Once, at Creation, the morning stars sang for joy; but afterwards moved in expressive silence.
As a consequence of the Danish and Norman conquests, a peculiar composition arose called Anglo-Danish and Anglo-Norman. These legends and war songs were produced by the Danish wars, and were the expressions of an adventurous and knightly spirit, which became prevalent in England. The most celebrated of them were the romances of "Beowulf," "Havelock, the Dane," and "Guy, Earl of Warwick." In the older romances of Scandinavian songs and sages, combats against dragons, serpents, and plagues are celebrated; in later romances of the age of chivalry, warriors are sung who had fallen in love with beautiful damsels far above them in birth or rank, and whose hand they could only acquire by some brilliant adventure or exploit. The heathen poems of the Scandinavian North are all conceived in the same spirit, and it is not unreasonable to recognise traces of Scandinavian influence in English compositions. In later times, even to the middle ages, this influence is still more apparent in the ballads and popular songs, which are only to be found in the northern or old Danish parts of England.
Many parts of the Edda or Sagas have been founded on songs in honour of the gods and heroes worshipped in Scandinavia.
In Shakespeare's "Hamlet" the young prince is sent to Britain with a letter carried by his two comrades. But he re-writes the letter and saves his life.
In the original Amleth legend of Saxo Grammaticus the two companions of Amleth, carry a wooden rune-carvel. But he cuts away some of the staves and adds others, so that the letter now tells the British king to slay the messengers, and to give his daughter in marriage to Amleth.
In the "Historie of Hamlet," London, 1608, we read, "Now to bear him company were assigned two of Fengons' ministers, bearing letters engraved on wood, that contained Hamlet's death, in such sort as he had advertised to the King of England. But the subtle Danish prince, being at sea, whilst his companions slept, raced out the letters that concerned his death, and instead thereof graved others."
These fairy tales of the giants, dwarfs, and heroes, are not senseless stories written for the amusement of the idle; but they contain the deep faith or religion of our forefathers, which roused them to brave actions, and inspired them with strength and courage. These Sagas existed for over four hundred years, until they exchanged their hero-god for St. Martin, and their Thumar, for St. Peter or St. Oswald, when their glory in Scandinavia fell before the preaching of the Cross.
Previous to their conquest of England, the Danes are said to have been unacquainted with the art of coining money. They are said to have imitated the Byzantine coins, by making the so-called "Bractaetes," which were stamped only on the one side, and were mostly used as ornaments. The art of coinage was very ancient in England. It was the custom of the Anglo-Saxon coiners to put their names on the coins which they struck. In the eighth and ninth centuries the names of the coiners are purely Anglo-Saxon. But in the tenth century, and especially after the year 950, pure Danish or Scandinavian names begin to appear; for instance, Thurmo, Grim, under King Edgar (959–975), and Rafn, Thurstan, under King Edward (975–978); also Ingolf, Hargrim, and others.
These Scandinavian names are mostly found in the coins minted in the North of England, or in districts which were early occupied by the Danes. Under King Ethelred II., who contended so long with Canute the Great before the Danish conquest of England was completed, the number of Scandinavian coiners arose rapidly, with the Danish power, and the names of forty or fifty may be found on the coins of Ethelred alone. Even after the fall of the Danish power, they are to be met with in almost the same number as before on the coins of the Anglo-Saxon King, Edward the Confessor. These coins prove much and justify us in inferring a long continued coinage.
The great hoard of silver coins found at Cuerdale in 1840, some two miles above Preston, were buried in a leaden chest, near an ancient ford of the river Ribble. This treasure composed the war chest of the Danish army, which was defeated at this ford early in the tenth century, on its retreat into Northumbria. It contained nearly one thousand English coins of Alfred the Great, and some forty-five of Edward the Elder. The latest date of any of these coins being of the latter reign, the date of the hoard being buried may be fixed between the years 900 and 925. Many of the coins were continental, belonging to the coast of Western France, and from the district round the mouth of the river Seine. The appearance of this money agrees with the early records of the Saxon Chronicle, that of the year 897, which tells us that "the Danish army divided, one part went into the Eastern Counties, and the other into Northumbria, and those who were without money, procured ships and went southwards over the sea to the Seine."
The other Chronicle of 910 states that, "a great fleet came hither from the south, from Brittany, and greatly ravaged the Severn, but there they afterwards nearly all perished." It may be supposed that the remnant of this band became united with the main Danish army, and would account for the large proportion of foreign money. The bulk of the coins were Danish, minted by Danish kings of Northumbria.
From these circumstances, we may believe, this hoard to have been the treasure or war chest of this retreating army. This Cuerdale hoard is by far the largest found in Lancashire; it contained 10,000 silver coins, and nearly 1,000 ounces of silver ingots. A smaller find, made at an early date, was the hoard of 300 silver pennies, discovered in 1611 at Harkirke, which lies on the sea coast between Crosby and Formby. Of this collection, some 35 coins were engraved at the latter part of the tenth century.
This engraving shows that these coins were minted by Alfred, Edward the Elder, and the Danish king Canute, and the ecclesiastical coinages of York and East Anglia. These coins were buried within a few years of the deposit at Cuerdale. We have numerous records of other Danish finds.
At Halton Moor, five miles above Lancaster, the discovery was made in 1815 of a silver cup of graceful design, containing 860 silver coins of Canute, with ornaments, which included a torque of silver wire. Mr. J. Coombe, of the British Museum, describes the coins as 21 Danish, and 379 of Canute. The latter being nearly all of one type, having on the obverse side the Head of the King with Helmet and Sceptre, and on the reverse a cross, within the inner circle, with amulets in the four angles.
The silver cup found on Halton Moor contained, in addition to the coins of Canute, a silver torque, which had been squeezed into the vessel. Both these silver articles are highly decorated and of great interest. The cup weighed over ten ounces, and was composed of metal containing three parts silver with one part copper. It appeared to have been gilt originally, some of the gold still remaining, which was of very pale colour. The ornamentation consisted of four circular compartments, divided by branches which terminated in the heads of animals, in Arabesque style. In these compartments are a panther and a butting bull alternately. This ornament is included inside two beautiful borders, which encircle the cup in parallel lines. The torque is of equal interest, and is a peculiar example of Danish wire-work metal rings, twisted and plated, with the ends beaten together for a double fastening. The face of this portion of the necklace, which is flattened, was decorated with small triangular pieces fixed by curious rivets. It was of pure silver and weighed six ounces six penny-weights.
Along with these deposits were some gold pieces, struck on one side only, with a rough outline of a human head. Similar pieces have been found in Denmark, and the Danish element is predominant in the whole decoration.
Before the Normans came our district was Scandinavian. From the year 876 they began to settle and behaved not as raiders but as colonists. They wanted homes and settled quietly down.
In the course of 200 years their descendants became leading landowners, as we see from the Norse names of the 12th century records.
Naturally the art of the district must have been influenced by such people: especially by the Scandinavians who had lived in Ireland, till then a very artistic country. Whether Irish taught Norse or vice versa, we see that there was a quantity of artistic work produced especially along the seaboard, and we are lucky in having analogies not far to seek.
In the Isle of Man the earliest series of Crosses have 11th century runes and figure subjects from the Edda and the Sigurd story which were late 11th century. Mr. Kermode, F.S.A., Scot., dates them 1050–1150 (Saga book of Viking Club, Vol. I., p. 369). We have them in the remains in Man a kindred race to ours in the age before the Normans came: and we find resemblances between these Manx Crosses and some of ours both in subject and in style. In subjects the 11th century Crosses of Kirk Andreas, Jurby, and Malew find a parallel at Halton, which Mr. Calverley places late in 11th century and attributes to people under strong Scandinavian influence: but Danish as it happens rather than Norse.
The Halton Crosses are not Norse in style. They are like the late pre-Norman work in Yorkshire where the Danes lived.
Then the Hogback stones have to be placed. We have fixed the Gosforth and Plumland examples by their dragonesque work as of the Viking settlement.
All these have the chain pattern, which Mr. Calverley called the Tree Yggdrasil or Tree of Existence, which shows that these monuments are of Viking origin.
From what models or pattern did these early sculptors copy their designs? It is sometimes said that they imitated MSS.: assuming that MSS. were fairly common and placed in the stone carver's hands. This is far less likely than that sculptors, at a distance from good models in stone, copied patterns from metal work which were the most portable, and most accessible of all forms of art, in the days before printing was invented.
Suppose, to make it plainer, the sorrowing survivor bids the British workman carve a Cross for the dead. "What like shall I work it?" says the mason. "Like the fair Crosses of England or Ireland, a knot above, and a knot below, and so forth." "But," says the mason, and he might say it in the 10th century, "I have never been in England or Ireland or seen your Crosses." Then answers the patron, "Make it like this swordhilt." (Calverley.)
The earlier Irish Christians were highly intellectual and literary, but not at first artistic. Literature in all races precedes art; it would be contrary to all historical analogy if Patrick and Columba had lived in the artistic atmosphere of the eighth and ninth century in Ireland. Patrick's bell is no great credit to Assicus his coppersmith: his crosier was a plain stick. There is no indication in our remains that Irish missionaries of the seventh century brought a single art idea into the country. It was the Irish Viking Christians of the twelfth century who did.
Mr. George Stephens, in his "Old Northern Runic Monuments of Scandinavia and England," vol. iii., under the heading "Runic Remains and Runic Writings," says:—
"I believe these stones, however altered and conventionalised, were all originally made for worship as gods or fetishes, elfstones, or what not, but in fact, at first as phallic symbols, the Zinga and the Zoni, creation and preservation, placed on the tumulus as triumphant emblems of Light out of Darkness, Life after Death. And the priapus and cups sometimes seen on burial-urns, must have the same meaning. Several of the grave minnes bearing old Norse runes were worship stones, carved with regular cups, etc., ages before they were used a second time for funereal purposes."
Prof. J. F. Simpson, M.D., Edinburgh, has a paper "On the Cup Cuttings and Ring Cuttings on the Calder Stones near Liverpool," in the Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, vol. xvii., 1865, in which he states that—
"The Calder Stones near Liverpool afford an interesting and remarkable example of these cup and ring carvings upon this variety of stones—or, in words, upon the stones of a small megalithic circle. Some of the Calder Stones afford ample evidence of modern chiselling as marked by the sharpness and outray figurings. But in addition to these there are cut upon them, though in some parts greatly faded away, sculpturings of cups and concentric rings similar to those found in various parts of England and Scotland, remarkable for not only their archaic carvings, perfect and entire similarity to those found elsewhere, but still more from the fact that we have here presented upon a single circle almost every known and recognised type of these cuttings.
The Calder circle is about six yards in diameter, consists of five stones which are still upright and one that is fallen. The stones consists of slabs and blocks of red sandstone, all different in size and shape. The fallen stone is small, and shows nothing on its exposed side, but possibly if turned over some markings might be discovered on its other surface. Of the five standing stones the largest of the set, No. 1, is a sandstone slab between 576 feet in height and in breadth. On its outer surface, or the surface turned to the exterior of the circle, there is a flaw above from disintegration and splintering of the stone: but the remaining portion of the surface presents between 30 and 40 cup depressions varying from 2 to 3 and a half inches in diameter, and at its lowest and left-hand corner is a concentric circle about a foot in diameter, consisting of four enlarging rings, but apparently without any central depression. The opposite surface of this stone (No. 1) is that directed to the interior of the circle, has near its centre a cup cut upon it, with the remains of one surrounding ring. On the right side of this single-ringed cup are the faded remains of a concentric circle of three rings. To the left of it there is another three-ringed circle with a central depression, but the upper portions of the ring are broken off. Above it is a double-ringed cup, with this peculiarity, that the external ring is a volute leading from the central cup, and between the outer and inner ring is a fragmentary line of apparently another volute making a double-ringed spiral which is common on some Irish stones, as on those of the great archaic mausoleum at New Grange, but extremely rare in Great Britain. At the very base of this stone towards the left are two small volutes, one with a central depression or cup, and the other seemingly without it. One of these small volutes consists of three turns, the other of two.
The cup and ring cuttings have been discovered in a variety of relations and positions. Some are sculptured on the surface of rocks in situ—on large stones placed inside and outside the walls of old British cities and camps, on blocks used in the construction of the olden dwellings and strongholds of archaic living man, in the interior of the chambered sepulchres and kistvaens of the archaic dead, on monoliths and on cromlechs, and repeatedly in Scotland on megalithic or so-called "Druidical" circles.
The name Calder Stones is derived from Norse Calder or Caldag, the calf-garth or yard enclosed to protect young cattle from straying.
Amongst the ancient monuments of Britain the well-known remains called Druidical Circles hold a foremost place, though their use, and the people by whom they were erected, are questions which still remain matters of dispute. The Stone enclosures of Denmark, which resemble the Circles of Cumbria in many respects, mainly differ from them, in that they are found in connection with burial chambers, whilst the latter are generally situated on the flat surface of moors, with nothing to indicate that they have ever been used for sepulchural purposes. Therefore wherever no urns or other remains have been found, we have negative evidence that the place was not intended for a place of sepulture.
CALDER STONE No 1
OUTER SURFACE.
Cairns which are the most undisputed form of a Celtic burial place were once very numerous in the northern districts: but a great many have long since been removed. The graves of Norway bear an outward resemblance to the Celtic Cairn, but the main cause appears to be that in mountainous countries stones are more easily procurable than earth. Where a doubt exists as to the proprietorship of these mounds, the only means of deciding is by an examination of the interior. The Norse Cairn should enclose a stone chest or wooden chamber and iron weapons. The Norwegians burned the body until about their conversion to Christianity.
CALDER STONE No 2.
OUTER ASPECT, TWO SIDES.
CALDER STONE No 3.
OUTER ASPECT TWO SIDES.
Tumuli or barrows still remain in great numbers. As far as records have been kept of those removed, nearly all must be claimed for the Bronze age, and the main part of those yet standing are essentially of a Danish character. In the description of this class of graves, we have no actual mention of iron antiquities.
The Cairn called Mill Hill, Westmoreland, appears to have been a Celtic burial place, whilst Loden How was more probably Danish than Norse. Four different names are found in connection with sepulchres of this kind, viz., "how, raise, barrow, and hill," but the distinction is principally that of age, and the order of the words as here placed indicates the period to which each belongs.
Few traces of the Iron age can be regarded as exclusively Norwegian wherever the body has been burned. Ormstead, near Penrith, was possibly a Norse burial place; while Thulbarrow, in the same neighbourhood, was in all probability Danish.
Memorial stones still remain in considerable numbers, the most remarkable of which is the Nine Standards in Westmoreland. Several villages called Unthank take their names from Monuments no longer in existence, the word being in English "onthink," and the phrase "to think on" is still current in the dialect.
The religious conceptions of the most famous nations of antiquity are connected with the beginnings of civilisation. We are told by Dr. Wägner, in his work "Asgard and the Gods," of the traditions of our northern ancestors, the story of the myths and legends of Norse antiquity. The first of their heroes was Odin, the god of battles, armed with his war spear, followed by the Walkyries, who consecrate the fallen heroes with a kiss, and bear them away to the halls of the gods, where they enjoy the feasts of the blessed. Later, Odin invents the Runes, through which he gains the power of understanding and ruling all things. He thus becomes the spirit of nature, the all-father. Then the ash tree, "Yggdrasil," grew up; the tree of the universe, of time, and life. The boughs stretched out to heaven, and over-shadowed Walhalla, the hall of the heroes. This world-tree was evergreen, watered daily by the fateful Norns, and could not wither until the last battle should be fought, where life, time, and the world were all to pass away. This was related by a skald, the northern bard, to the warriors while resting from the fatigue of fighting, by tables of mead.
The myths were founded on the belief of the Norse people, regarding the creation of the world, gods, and men, and thus we find them preserved in the songs of the "Edda. The vague notion of a Deity who created and ruled over all things had its rise in the impression made upon the human mind by the unity of nature. The sun, moon, and stars, clouds and mists, storms and tempests, appeared to be higher powers, and took distinct forms in the mind of man. The sun was first regarded as a fiery bird which flew across the sky, then as a horse, and afterwards as a chariot and horses; the clouds were cows, from whose udders the fruitful rain poured down. The storm-wind appeared as a great eagle that stirred the air by the flapping of his enormous wings. These signs of nature seemed to resemble animals. On further consideration it was found that man was gifted with the higher mental powers. It was then acknowledged that the figure of an animal was an improper representation of a divine being. They thus inverted the words of Holy writ, that "God created man in his own image," and men now made the gods in their own likeness, but still regarded them as greater, more beautiful, and more ideal than themselves.
From the titles of these pagan gods we derive the names of our days of the week, and thus we continue to perpetuate in our daily life the story of Norse mythology. The first day of the week was dedicated to the worship of the sun. The second day to that of the moon. The third day was sacred to Tyr, the god of war. The fourth day was sacred to Wodin, or Odin, the chief deity. The fifth day was sacred to Thor, the god of thunder. The sixth day of the week, Friday, was sacred to Frigga, the wife of the great Odin. The seventh or last day of the week was dedicated by the Romans to Saturn, one of the planets, their god of agriculture, whose annual festival was a time of unrestrained enjoyment.
The "Eddas" were two Scandinavian books, the earlier a collection of mythological and heroic songs, and the other a prose composition of old and venerable traditions. These books were meant for the instruction of the Norse skalds and bards. It is believed that the learned Icelander, Saemund, the Wise, compiled the older Edda in 1056 from oral traditions, and partly from runic writings. The younger Edda is supposed to have been compiled by Bishop Snorri Sturlason in 1178, and this collection goes by the name of Snorra-Edda. The language was developed by means of the sagas and songs which had been handed down among the people from generation to generation.
The Norns were the three fatal sisters, who used to watch over the springs of water, and appeared by the cradle of many a royal infant to give it presents. On such occasions two of them were generally friendly to the child, while the third prophesied evil concerning it. In the pretty story of the "Sleeping Beauty" these Norns appear as the fairies.
Bragi was the son of the wave maidens and the god of poetry. He was married to the blooming Induna, who accompanied him to Asgard, where she gave the gods every morning the apples of eternal youth.
Tyr, the god of war, was tall, slender as a pine, and bravely defended the gods from the terrible Fenris-Wolf. In doing so he lost his hand, and was held in high honour by the people. Baldur, the holy one, and the giver of all good, was the son of Odin. His mother Frigga entreated all creatures to spare the well-beloved, but she overlooked the weak mistletoe bough. The gods in boisterous play threw their weapons at Baldur, and the dart made of the fatal bough was thrown by the blind Hödur with deadly effect.
Forseti, the son of Baldur, resembled his father in holiness and righteousness, was the upholder of eternal law. The myth shows him seated on a throne teaching the Norsemen the benefits of the law, surrounded by his twelve judges.
Loki, the crafty god, was the father of the Fenris-Wolf, and the snake. He was the god of warmth and household fire, and was held to be the corrupter of gods, and the spirit of evil. It was Loki who formed the fatal dart, which he placed in the hands of the blind Hödur, which caused the death of Baldur. After the murder of Baldur, Loki conceals himself on a distant mountain, and hides himself under a waterfall. Here the avengers catch him in a peculiar net which he had invented for the destruction of others. They bind him to a rock, where a snake drops poison upon his face, which makes him yell with pain. His faithful wife, Sigyn, catches the poison in a cup; but still it drops upon him whenever the vessel is full. From this myth it is supposed that Shakspere derived the story of his greatest drama and tragedy, "Hamlet," of the Prince of Denmark. Our forefathers notion of the last battle, the single combats of the strong, the burning of the world, are all to be read in ancient traditions, and we find them described in the poems of the Skalds. The Norse mythology makes amends for the tragic end of the divine drama by concluding with a description of the renewal of the world. The earth rises fresh and green out of its ruin, as soon as it has been cleansed from sin, refined and restored by fire. The gods assemble on the plains of Ida, and the sons of Thor bring with them their father's storm-hammer, a weapon no longer used for fighting, but only for consecrating what is right and holy. They are joined by Baldur and Hödur, reconciled and united in brotherly love.
Uller is recorded in the Edda as the cheery and sturdy god of winter, who cared nothing for wind and snowstorm, who used to go about on long journeys on his skates or snow-shoes. These shoes were compared to a shield, and thus the shield is called Uller's Ship in many places. When the god Uller skated over the ice he carried with him his shield, and deadly arrows and bow made from the yew-tree. He lived in the Palace Ydalir, the yew vale. As he protected plants and seeds from the severe frosts of the north, by covering the ground with a coating of snow, he was regarded as the benefactor of mortal men, and was called the friend of Baldur, the giver of every blessing and joy. Uller meant divine glory, as Vulder, the Anglo-Saxon god, was also characterised. This was probably because the glory of the northern winter night, which is often brilliantly lighted by the snow, the dazzling ice, and the Aurora-borealis, the great northern light. The myths exist in the present like the stately ruins of a past time, which are no longer suitable for the use of man. Generations come and go, their views, actions, and modes of thought change: